I watched the first two episodes of “Crusade,” the spin off of Babylon 5. So far I’m unimpressed. Everything that was great about Babylon 5 is missing from this. Ok I’m only 2 episodes and I also thought that Star Trek the Next Generation sucked so bad after seeing “Encounter at Farpoint” while living in New Zealand I made no attempt to ever see the show again until I got back to the states 3 years later and fell in love with the it in the third season. Also, one reviewer at Netflix does say it doesn’t really get going until after episode 3. Still it’s hard not to judge it against B5 which this certainly aint.

First disappointment is that its 4:3 aspect ratio. Second disappointment is it seems geared toward action rather than intrigue and plot threads. The third disappointment is the characters which seem paper thin except for Galen which actually seems like a rip-off of Nicol Williamson’s Merlin from Excalibur right down to some of his first lines.

Note that according to a few Netflix reviewers and Wiki the broadcast order of the episodes don’t follow the chronological order of the timeline which can cause some incongruence. The correct viewing order is listed on the Wiki page. That they would make any sense at all out of order shows just how much this isn’t B5.

I will finish watching this out of curiosity and so I can say I did but I think I’ll be taking a break from it since I have many more interesting things to watch and there is nothing about this series compelling me back right now.

I know it's been loved to death already but I was finally able to play my BR version of the Band of Brothers last night. I started on Episode three as I recently saw 1 and 2 on TV again.

I think I have a new audio demo, for guys anyways. The gunfire from all angles almost makes you forget to watch the screen. Most impressively, even at just a reasonable volume, I really felt some of the gunshots. There was some real punch to some of those bangs. One explosion had my couch vibrating, albeit suddenly and briefly, more that than the tripod scene in War of the Worlds and again, that was at a reasonable volume level. (dbs never broke 93)

Visuals on the BR version are equally stunning.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

I just watched the Blu-ray of “Sherlock Holmes.” I must admit that based on the trailers I was not expecting to like it but I was quite presently surprised.

The video quality was quite good though not the best I’ve seen. My system is very good at bringing out shadow detail but there were some scenes where the blacks just blended together in a uniform darkness. Also, a couple of times when pulling back from a close-ups. elements of the image got very grainy almost static like.

OTOH, major kudos for the 1.85:1 transfer as more people have gotten 16:9 HDTV displays I think the studios are getting the message. I loved the look of Victorian London especially all the detail in both the interior and exterior shots. Some might complain that it was mostly without colour but thought the various hues of the colours used created quite a rich palette. Except for the minor complaints above, the overall picture was very sharp.

The audio quality was also excellent but not outstanding. While my whole system got a nice workout the audio presentation did seem a little forced at times. There was quite a but of deep LFE evidenced by my Buttkicker getting called into action quite often. However, the low LFE wasn’t so much tied to on screen actions as much as musical or just mood setting which it did quite well. Lots of surround action from street noises to people walking around you inside of rooms. Quite a bit of directional effects were also present. There were also several times where voices and other sounds panned around the room for dramatic effect which I also though worked quite well. One of the scenes with gunfire at 221 B had me ducking for cover with the actors on the screen. Oh yeah the dialogue was also mixed in very nicely.

Like I said above I was quite surprised at how much I liked this movie. I’ve been so disappointed by the crap coming out of Hollywood the last few years I almost dread putting the movies in my queue. I doubly dread modern remakes of classics as they try to make them contemporary and dumbed down for an un/under-educated U.S. audience. However, I was quite pleased with the steampunk atmosphere of this remake. The style is what I wish they would have done with “The Wild Wild West.”

I liked all the performances even though Downey’s and Law’s characterizations are very non-standard, however they are believable do to their chemistry. I love the fact there were no cases I noticed of characters having to behave stupidly to further the plot. Instead everyone just keeps out smarting one another. At first I wasn’t sure I would like the “replay action” for lack of a better term but it wasn’t overused and in most cases I thought it worked quite well to tell the story from a different perspective than just seen.

Ok this movie isn’t perfect but it’s entertaining, entertaining enough that I know I would enjoy watching it several times. Since my sole purpose of watch movies is to be entertained I totally recommend seeing this movie.

I still really like this movie... and I really like my sound system. Watching movies is so much more fun than it used to be. Thanks to both Axiom and my very own skewed priorities. What a team. I don't know why, but I was just really happy hearing what my system is capable of tonight. I've sort of been taking it for granted, but tonight it's like I was listening with fresh ears.